the blahblah is nice and mud tasty but in the meantime python is infiltrating Linux (it looks most open source projects!) in not only sys-admin roles but also ... as a system tool. I just had to debug why "firewalld" in my linux box went AWOL while on duty ... apparently it couldn't find a module called 'six' /sic/... Then had to find why the package manager "dnf", also written in python, takes 30 seconds to spit out anything. Apparently the --verbose or --debug flag do not go deep enough into the python internals and so it makes virtually no difference, it still sits there silent.

Add to that that there are two (so far) factions in the python's court. And that they still haven't managed a decent system-python setting where day-to-day module installs do not affect system functioning, a la perlbrew. So when installing a python module as root you are warned to do that on a per-user basis in fluent pythonesque language "it is not a good idea to ...". It is not a good idea but the holes you open are that big ... Thanks a lot! how about selling me a computer made of stone next time?

That said, I am not a big advocate of using Perl as a system tool (different to using it as a tool for the sys-admin to run chores) but seing python gaining popularity in this very sensitive field I despair of what is yet to come.

I would rather see all the energy in this post expended on promoting Perl not because it is the Caballa but because it is a worthy and sensible script language and the alternative is 666.

of course I am biased but I also need my firewall to work.

p.s. good point about Perl6's access to C-functions more directly that's great, I did not know that.